Lasting Pride (Pride Series Romance Novels) (12 page)

What a waste of time! And even more of a waste of money. He was just glad he hadn’t actually paid the man yet. He had sat in his car, across from the jogging trail, and watched for himself. The man he’d hired couldn’t shoot a large stationary target on the side of a barn, let alone an unarmed man jogging alone. Now, he was sure that his hired hand had been seen by no less than half a dozen people. Something had to be done.

He knew that some pawns had to be sacrificed in order to get to the queen. Looking across the table at the skinny man who looked a little too self-confident, he thought of how he would accomplish the task. Maybe there was a way to play this where he would get what he wanted and get rid of his employee at the same time.

Smiling, he leaned back in his chair and told the man exactly what he wanted him to do.

It had taken Roberta two days to track down the identification of the shooter. Dr. Kim and his running group had been invaluable to the search. When Tom had shown everyone the line up, each had pointed to his picture. IDing the perp had been easy, finding the man was a different matter.

Ricky Scoles had been in and out of jail for the past fifteen years. His rap sheet was long and went back years to include his juvenile records where he’d been tried as an adult for a botched robbery in which two store clerks had been gunned down. He’d gotten off easy since he’d only been the driver that night. Word on the street was he was a hired hand now. Taking odd jobs, working for a few of the local gangs, drug lords, even some of the hookers that still worked the East side. The low-life scum-bucket had been a quick hire for someone. The question now was, who had hired him to kill Ric and why?

“
I’m clocking out, Tom.” She threw the last of her paperwork on her desk and decided the rest could wait until the morning.

She had her class later that night, but figured maybe a quick stop by Ric’s couldn’t hurt. Texting him as she walked out to the parking garage, she knew he would be leaving the gallery soon. She had a couple of black and whites driving by his place every hour to make sure everything was going smooth. Not to mention she’d made him promise to text every hour. He’d talked her into every other hour.

“Wanna grab some grub?” She waited for his reply.

“Sure, meet you at Barb’s in twenty?”

“I’ll be there.”

She pushed her phone into her back pocket and reached for her keys. The first blow came out of no where. Her ears were ringing as she was grabbed and spun around. She got a quick glimpse of him. Tall, about one-seventy, jet black hair, Ricky Scoles. Then, she was being thrown against her car, one of his hands went over her mouth. The other was reaching frantically for her hands.

“You’re coming with me bitch, my boss wants you.” His voice was husky and laced with anger.

He was trying to trap her hands in his. But, she fought back, pushing his hands away. She could smell his sweat and fear.

She’d trained for this her whole life. Her instincts kicked in and it took her only a second to react. When he pulled his arm back to take another swing at her, she pushed, ducked, and kicked out catching him off guard.

Her vision was fading from the blow to the side of her head and she was worried she might black out. Quickly dodging his next blow, she saw the moment he reached behind him to where he would keep a gun.

By the time his hands returned with the weapon, her shots rang out in the empty parking garage.

R
ic answered his phone after seeing his sister’s number on the display.

“Have you called mom yet?”

“Well, hello Katie. It’s nice to talk to you too,” he replied.

“Yes, yes, hello. Have you
talked
to mom yet?”

“No, I haven’t
talked
to mom yet,” he mimicked.

“Ric, you told me you were going to call her days ago. I’m dying to find out who…” he heard a knock on his door and knew it was Rob. She’d called earlier and canceled their dinner plans, then told him she’d meet him at his place in a few hours.

“Hang on Katie, Roberta’s at the door.”

“Ooh, don’t let me keep you. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Have fun, be safe.
Call
mom.” His sister hung up quickly as he answered the door.

Rob stood leaning against his door frame looking off towards the elevators.

“Before you freak out,” she said, not looking in his direction, “you should see the other guy.” She turned and he saw what she’d been hiding from him. The right side of her face was covered in a nasty bruise, she had a black eye, and her face was swollen. He saw a slight cut just under her right eye.

“Oh my god!” He pulled her in the door and grabbed her shoulders lightly. Looking down into her face, he could see the pain there. Her right eye was blood shot and she winced when the bright lights in his apartment hit her full force.

“What happened?” he brushed her hair away from her temple to get a better look at the side of her face. Knowing someone had done this, he felt like ripping them apart.

“Let me just apologize to you first.”

“You don’t have to apologize for missing dinner,” he broke in.

“No, not that,” she looked into his eyes, “I’m sorry that I didn’t treat you with more care when you had your concussion.” She smiled weakly at him and he could see the pain that the smile had caused her.

“Hmmm, you’ll need someone to watch over you tonight then.” He smiled slightly, “You might even want to take another jacuzzi bath since the last time you didn’t stay in it very long.” He was happy when he saw a little sparkle in her eyes.

She could definitely get used to this. She’d locked herself in Ric’s large bathroom. The jacuzzi jets were set to high and the heat along with the bubbles were doing wonders for her bruised back and concussed head.

Ric had given up his bedroom for the night and more importantly, he’d drawn her bath himself. He had even put a dab of scented oils in the water to help relax her then he dimmed the bathroom lights as he walked out. Everything was helping with the throbbing headache she was experiencing. She’d been knocked around in the academy and by her father, but she hadn’t experienced any thing like this before.

She relaxed back into the hot water and thought of Ric. Then she smiled remembering when she had seen him naked in this very tub. What a body he had.

Her smaller frame easily fit in the oversized bath. When she tried to rest her head on the cushions, her feet would float up and almost suck her head under the water. She sat with her feet wedged against the bottom and her head floating in the water, which helped dull her mind.

She started thinking about her day, she had called the dojo and canceled her Tae Kwon Do classes for the night. Actually, thanks to the doctor’s orders, she had to cancel them for the next few days. And, thanks to her boss, she now had those two weeks off, since he’d placed her on administration leave. Standard, when an officer was involved in a shooting death.

Ricky Scoles was no longer going to answer any questions about who had hired him to kill Ric.

She was totally relaxed when she heard a noise, knowing it would be him, she decided to keep her eyes shut. She felt heat spread throughout her already warm body and knew he was standing there, much like she’d done last week, looking over her body.

Because of the way she’d been raised, she’d never truly experienced shame or embarrassment in her body. She knew she was small framed, rounded curves where needed, her arms and legs were a little on the thin side, but her muscles were toned, which made up for a lot of what she deemed as her inadequacies.

“Well, you can see for yourself that I’m okay,” she said without opening her eyes. Feeling his eyes on her did something to her insides.

“You know, I’ve been told one shouldn’t fall asleep in that thing.” His voice was getting closer to her and she could tell he stood directly over her now.

“I locked that door for a reason, Derby.” She finally opened her eyes. The heat she felt didn’t even compare to the fires she could see burning in his eyes.

“That’s the great thing about owning a place,” he held up a ring, “you get all the keys to the doors.” His smile was intoxicating and contagious.

“Well, if you’re just going to stand there,” she leaned forward and tossed a wash cloth to him, “you might as well work for the show you’re getting.”

“How about I strip down and climb in there with you?” She laughed. He walked over and leaned on the edge of the tub then starting running the cloth slowly over her shoulders. “There’s definitely enough room in there for the both of us.”

She stretched under his fingers. “I’ve got a head-ache.” She smiled into her knees which she’d pulled up to her chest as she heard him laugh.

“No doubt,” he put his finger gently under her chin and forced her to look into his blue eyes. Had she noticed how blue they were before? Or that he had a light dusting of freckles that ran across his nose? His mouth was soft looking and she knew that it felt good running over her skin and against her own mouth.

“I know you don’t feel up to it now, by the dull look in your eyes, but later I want all the details of what happened to you.” He sobered.

She closed her eyes, her head was still throbbing, but the medicine had done little to relieve the tension that was still building down her back. When she’d stripped naked in his bathroom and looked at herself, she’d been shocked at the colors that had ran down her right side. Then, she’d remembered being tossed against her car and realized why her muscles were screaming at her.

“It was stupid of me to let my guard down. I would have never done that…” she trailed off remembering her childhood. A quick memory of her father’s face came into mind. There had been plenty of times she’d ended up with worse than the bruises, worse than she had now. Broken fingers, arms, and ribs had been the norm when she’d been younger. Once, she even thought she had a broken collar bone. She’d spent three weeks lying in bed with her father leaning over her apologizing every day. He’d quit drinking for two whole months after that incident.

“I’ll be fine,” she looked into his eyes. “I’m just pissed that I didn’t get a chance to get some answers.”

“Why don’t you come out of there. I’ve made some hot soup and some grilled cheese sandwiches. It’s almost time for you to take your medicine again.” He held up a towel for her to walk into.

He waited in the living room as Roberta changed into his sweat shorts and extra t-shirt he had laid out for her.

He had seen the pain in her eyes and knew what she was going through. While she was in the tub, he had made some calls. Sergeant Johns had filled him in on what had happened and informed Ric that Roberta was on admin leave for the next couple weeks. He assured Ric this was only procedure. He even guaranteed that the shooting was already deemed justified after the video from the garage had been presented.

Then, he had updated him on his case. Which appeared that there really wasn’t an update since the two main suspects were now dead. The fact that Ricky Scoles hadn’t been one of the three men to break into his galleries still weighed heavy on the investigation. They still had two other guys out there that could shed some light on the matter.

Ric had been scouring the internet since the break-in. He didn’t know if these men were dumb enough to try to sell the paintings right away, but he and his staff were keeping a close eye on all the auction sites.

His mind switched to Dante’s missing artwork. He didn’t know what the catch was with that piece. Why Mark had taken the time and effort to steal that one himself when he’d just arranged to open the doors at his gallery that night. Why hadn’t Mark just taken everything himself? Did he honestly think he would have gotten away? Was he planning on disappearing after everything was taken?

Since the shooting, he’d been forced into hiding by Roberta and the police. They didn’t want to take any chances with him and had asked that he not go out unnecessarily. He had his food and groceries delivered and was beginning to feel trapped in the apartment alone. His body had healed since his parking garage incident, and since being shot at on the trails. So he’d been forced to actually use the treadmill in his spare room. Something he tried to only use during winter.

Looking up, he watched as Roberta walked in. His sweat shorts were too big and the shirt hit her mid thigh. The bruises on her face gave her a tough girl look that he found oddly appealing. Her wet hair hung down her back in waves and he couldn’t remember her looking better.

“What?” she looked at him.

He had to shake his head when he realized he’d been staring at her.

“I like this look on you,” he smiled.

She sat down at the table and looked at him. “You know, I thought I had you figured out.”

He looked at her waiting. She picked up the spoon and took a sip of the tomato soup and closed her eyes with pleasure. He wanted to see that look on her face for other reasons.